This mod can be done in 2 hours max, by anyone who isn't scared to get their finger nails dirty .

1st.. Drain the transmission from the autobox sump..and disgard safely.

2nd: Remove the bolts holding the sump, and if you follow the dipstick tube there is a bolt which is fixed onto the side of the intake manifold,just run your hand down the dipstick holder and you'll feel where the bolt is and take this bolt out, as you need to pull the dipstick tube off as well.

3rd: you will now have to give the sump a little tap with a soft hammer,or get yourself a bit of wood and use that to loosen off the sump.

4th: Once you have removed the sump you will now see the inside of the autobox..

5th: You will see a large rectangular plate which is held in place with ' 3 BOLTS ', which you will now have to remove,and unclip the wire from it, If you wish you can buy yourself a new one from Mr T or you can give the filter a good clean, once you have removed the filter you will now see the complete ' VALVE BODY ', thats the bit with all the humps and bumps

5th: Now if you look at the other end of the box you will see 2 pipes about 4" long with bends on each end, these need to be PRISED out GENTLY, just ease them out of there placement by pulling at each end, you might need to use a small bit of wood to start them moving, and wiggle them free, then put them to one side.

6th: You will now have to remove the KICKDOWN CABLE, which is fed through the side of the box and is hooked onto a quadrant, just pull the quadrant round and unhook the cable from it.

Now if you look at PIC No:5 you will see 3 SOLENOIDS, 2 on one side of the box and another by itself, you need to unplug the wires from them just push the little clip in and unhook the wires and let them hang.

Now you are ready to remove the valve body, there are 17 bolts you need to remove, to take the valve body off.

This bit is VERY important, the BOLTS ARE PLACE SPECIFIC, this means that they will only go back into where they came out off, so what you need to do, is make a template up like we did, and mark out the bolt pattern, i will insert a pic here and you could just copy the pattern from that onto a bit of card, but make sure you DO A TEMPLATE, or your gonna have major problems getting the bolts back in.

Before you undo all the bolts on the valve body you will need to LOOSEN down the selector arm bolt a little DO NOT REMOVE this BOLT.

Once you have SLACKENED this bolt down you can start to remove the valve body bolts and put them into the template, if you can have a friend to give you a little help doing this, and have an OLD basin handy as your gonna drop, a CHECK BALL OUT and a LARGE SPRING, and you DONT want to loose the little check ball and spring.

(forget the blurred writing at the top of this pic)

(same with this one .)

The CHECK BALL is fixed onto a little plastic unit which also has a little spring sitting on the other end the plastic unit is rectangular shape and MUST be installed this way when putting it back into it's recess,we have pointed it out with a large screwdriver on this next pic, the large spring just fits back into it's recess, when your putting it all back together.

Once you have removed ALL the bolts from the valve body, put it in a safe place and give it a little clean if you wish, we will now go back to the box and do the mods to that.

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You should now get both of your shims.

1st look at the pic and you will see 3 ACCUMULATORS we are only modding 2 of them, which i have marked out in the next pic.

Remove 1 of the accumulators, just pull it gently down it will be full of fluid,so your gonna get some fluid down your arm

it will have a couple of springs in it, or just the 1 spring dependant on which 1 you remove 1st, take out the spring..

Get your shim and sit it on TOP OF THE SPRING.

And then put the shim and spring back into the accumulator, and sit it out of the way safely, do the same with the other accumulator and sit that out of the way as well, but do NOT forget which 1 goes where, they have to be put back into there right recesses.

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We now need to go to the valve body so have it on a table or something and have a look at the side of the valve body till you see the part we have marked out.

This is the adjuster for the pressure regulator, and if yours is in the same position as in pic no:11 then it is set at MEDIUM setting,and you need to get a small bladed screwdriver, and PUSH the DIAL INWARDS and turn to the RIGHT so that it now looks like pic 12....ie it should now have the dial in as far as it can go.

You have now just turned up the pressure accross the whole box. (there is another little mod that i believe Dean is going to try) but for now your done with the valve body.

Now you need to take the valve body back over to the car as your going to put it all back together, this is where your mate comes in handy , since you have shimmed the accumulators they WONT sit in there recesses once reinserted, so this is the awkward bit, put the accumulators and LARGE spring back into the recesses, and have your friend hold them there,you will need to offer up the valve body and MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE CHECKBALL AND IT'S LITTLE UNIT AND SPRING SITTING THE RIGHT WAY ROUND, THE SPRING PART OF THE CHECKBALL GOES INTO THE BOX 1st.

You will need to offer this up with the valvebody it's a little awkward but it can be done and then get 2 bolts and put them in oppisit coners on the valvebody so that it is held in place.now just put everything back on and connect the wires back up to the solonoids,

.
Be SURE that you have the SELECTOR ARM BACK IN THE POSITION it came off

Or you wont be able to move the shifter to the right gear and REMEMBER to tighten up the bolt you just loosened down on the selector arm.

Now DO NOT go mad with the tightening of the bolts I dont know the torque settings for the bolts just make sure they are tight. you should have a good idea on how tight they go from how tight they where to loosen off.

Once you have everything back on, replace sump and you should have at LEAST 1 gallon of tranny fluid, for a refill.

Refill box and once you have about 3/4 of the fluid in the box start the car and move the gearshifter through all the gears a few times and switch off see if you got a level on the tranny dipstick, once you see it showing a little on the dipstick, you need to start the car move the slector again and get the car warm, ok keep adding once the car is warm and keep checking the fluid,DO NOT SWITCH off the car when checking the tranny fluid, as the car has to be running and hot to check your transmission fluid level.

After you have the right amount of fluid in the box go and take it a drive and enjoy a nice quick gear change .

I want to add to this that if you do this mod it is a good idea to add a transmission cooler, which will keep the temps down.

Now for the thankyou bit ).

As i mentioned on a post last week this mod is NOT mine, all credit goes to a lad in the states who is a certified autbox tech,and i have spoken to him on several occassions, and all i can say is THANKS Jared for giving us this top mod.

Jared got some of this info from toyotas top guy on boxes on the west coast of America IIRC,and we have now run this mod for over a month, and we had severe probs with the box retarding the ignition timing due to the slow change on the box, this has now been more or less eradicated,thanks to the faster shift.

We have also done AndyTT's car which is a standard TT Soarer which did not have the farting during change,but to say the least he is a very happy bunny .

I also want to point out that we used 6mm shims, and we found that these where just right, to keep the car changing fast but NOT to be kicking you in the back during changes.

If you want you could have some 8mm shims made up and that would reduce the shift time also BUT be warned it will then get a little intrusive, during town driving,the other mod Dean is wanting to try is shimming the pressure regulator with a small 2mm, which should incresed the pressure accross the box a bit more, but you need to be careful doing this mod as there is a chance of blowing seals in the box, so for now, these mods should keep you happy and take away the slow change from the A340e box.

Andy and Chris.

PS
Thanks also goes to AndyTT for letting us use the pit .

PPS

I didnt explain how this modification works as it gets a little techy, and to be honest it dont really matter if you know how it works as all your wanting is a faster shifting box,without paying an arm and a leg for it.

PPS
I have been asked a couple of times if this modification will work on the V8 Soarer yes it will the valve body is a little diff from the TT but thats nothing to be worried about as it has the same accumulators.

PPPS
This Mod WILL work on the V8 as well and if you use the size of shims we used then it will not affect the smoothness of the change.

PPPPS

Jimi hope your gonna have this in the editorials sir ._________________to err is human

Last edited by bedlam on Sun Mar 12, 2006 8:10 pm; edited 2 times in total

Well done Andy on this write up
Very well written and even an english monkey could understand it

Jimi get this in the editorials
And dont reduce the size of the pics to much mate as they need to be big so ya can zoom in lots

I have a load of these kits being made as we speak
The kit will consist of

2 shims
either 6mm 8mm or 10mm
plus a pic of valve body printed to scale to help with makng sure you put the right sized bolt back in the right place of the valve body

the pressure reg shim will also be availiable but this will be once i have run the box with it in for a month

Cost of kit will be about £5
this is cost price and includes postage _________________Dean Smith
__________________________________
"This thing that we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down."

Just like to say a big thankyou to Bedlam and Chris for transforming my TT.

The shift is so quick, you DO NOT FEEL THE CHANGE during normal driving, and when the foot is heavy on the loud pedal, it's feels amazing Roll on Crail next year

Please PM Dean if you want your shims, as you can't just pack it with washers or the like, as the valve body is not machined finished, and is slightly coned in shape. It took us some time to get the correct diameter on Bedlam's lathe, so the shim fits like a glove, and believe it or not, we used equipment that is used, and calibrated, to manufacture F1 bearings shells to measure, and machine the shims

Im having the shims laser cut out of stainless steel just so you all know _________________Dean Smith
__________________________________
"This thing that we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down."

It is only being used by the Mk3 supra guys who have done the 1JZ transplant,but it will work fine on the Mk1V supra as well, and i am sure some of the supra guys over here are now gonna try this since we posted it on there as well.

Andy
PS
and yes it will work ok on your car _________________to err is human

It isnt a hard job, more awkward i would say.unless you can get the use of a pit, there is a better walkthrough in the editorials.

As for the bit needed i am not sure Dean has any of the shims left but they are...

21mm Dia and i would prob use 8mm depth on them, (or 10mm for a little harder shift) now you should be able to get yourselfs some made up i used Ally for ours and Andras since Andra had access to some of that but using steel rod would work just the same.

Andy
PS
And i would advise that anyone doing this mod get themselfs a tranny cooler._________________to err is human